yeah... december 31st 1984 newyears eve night... we had a severe outbreak... tornado warnings in area... that was the big system that actually changed the pattern to a brutal winter....

There was actually a strat warming event that eventually coincided with the entire polar vortex coming down mid month. The entire state was below 0 and Knoxville went to -24. Even after the cold continued until mid February. After that it warmed up and we never went below 32 again.

yeah... december 31st 1984 newyears eve night... we had a severe outbreak... tornado warnings in area... that was the big system that actually changed the pattern to a brutal winter....

There was actually a strat warming event that eventually coincided with the entire polar vortex coming down mid month. The entire state was below 0 and Knoxville went to -24. Even after the cold continued until mid February. After that it warmed up and we never went below 32 again.

There was actually a strat warming event that eventually coincided with the entire polar vortex coming down mid month. The entire state was below 0 and Knoxville went to -24. Even after the cold continued until mid February. After that it warmed up and we never went below 32 again.

I remember the set up well. I remember the severe weather out in front of it. I was 20 years old and man that was a great beer drinking sled riding winter. I remember being on Riverside Dr. in downtown Clarksville with a friend in his 4 wheel drive. We had about 8 inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing quarter size flakes. There was nobody out in Clarksville, not another vehicle on the road. We stopped in the middle of town and got out and walked around in the middle of the intersection in downtown Clarksville. It was so quiet, no tracks on the road but ours. It was kind of a surreal moment, I wish we would have had a camera for pictures. We were there 15 minutes and it was like we were the only ones in Clarksville. I will never forget that winter. LOL!!!!

Being as it was in the mid 1980's, there were multiple surprise events that winter as well. I remember one in particular during the big cold wave event in January. The Arctic front bringing the bitter cold air was originally forecast to only have an inch or two of snow accompany it. However, late in the afternoon a low pressure developed along the front in Oklahoma, causing the front to slow and moisture to overrun the boundary. We ended up with 6 inches of snow, and thanks to the cold and more snow to follow, we had snow on the ground for nearly 3 weeks straight. Longest I've personally ever seen that happen.

I don't mean to drone on and on about '85. Guess this ole fella can't help but wax nostalgic when thinking about it. Post Merge: October 13, 2017, 07:40:30 AMOn a different note--snow cover has rapidly increased in parts of Asia, and has also begun to spread over parts of northern North America.

The rain and storms around New Years of 85 had the backwater out. We were duck hunting the morning of the first big snow. It snowed about 6 inches and temps crashed. The snow created 6 inches of slush on the water and it froze as the day went on. That boat ride took forever to get back to the truck. Lots of ducks died in the making of this story.